Long to reign over us — it’s been a week for toasting monarchs whose records may last for ever.

As an 89-year-old great-grandmother whose family have lived in mansions on benefits for 63 years celebrated her fortune, Gary Lineker weighed up lion king Wayne Rooney’s feat of 50 goals for England - and warned it could stand for generations.

“I was really pleased for him. It’s good to get it out of the way and it’s a wonderful achievement to be the highest goal-scorer in England’s international history,” said Lineker .

“He’s been a terrific player over a long period of time and there has been great longevity to his career, but he’s not just a goal-scorer – that’s the important thing to remember.

“There is so much more to his game than goals: a wonderful work ethic, his awareness of space and he is thoroughly deserving of the record.

“He is a very intelligent footballer – he knows where to go, how to pull defenders out of position and his movement is top-class.

“Although he may not have the blistering pace of some, he has terrific speed of thought, he’s very good at finding space because he can drop deep and he works his socks off.

“That should be a prerequisite – but sometimes being over-keen has almost been a weakness of his, especially if he is tracking back in certain areas where he doesn’t get the ball.

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“People say he’s still only 29, but you never know how long a player has left, especially with strikers. Once you turn 30, strikers are usually on the way down, but as a player who is not entirely reliant on pace, you would hope he’s got a few years left.

“Playing from the age of 16 at such a high level has to take its toll, but physically he is very strong and you would hope he can make it to the next World Cup, which would be excellent. But he’s clearly a very strong individual mentally – any great goalscorer has to be.

“He’s also proving to be a very good leader and he clearly has the respect of his team-mates.

“It’s fairly pointless to put a figure on how many more goals he could score in his England career because it depends on so many aspects, but you can see a lot more coming.

“With the break-up of the old Soviet Union, the break-up of Balkan countries, plus Liechtenstein, San Marino and so on, you would fancy his chances of scoring more – and when he looks at England’s next World Cup qualifying group his eyes will light up.”

One criticism of Rooney, acknowledged by Alan Shearer (30 goals for England) among others, is his poor return at the biggest tournament of all.

Lineker scored 10 goals at World Cup finals; to date, Rooney’s only success was last year’s short-lived equaliser against Uruguay.

The one and only: Rooney has managed just a single goal at the World Cup finals (Photo: Action Images)

“Personal records are not what football is all about, but as goalscorers we live and die by figures and numbers,” said Lineker, now 54. “Ultimately, that’s how people judge strikers.

“Rooney has scored some wonderful goals over the years as well as poacher’s goals. My abiding memory of him was probably at Euro 2004, when he broke through. He was sensational in that tournament.

“For a variety of reasons it’s never quite happened for him since then, whether he’s gone in (to the World Cup) injured or with a couple of bloody awful teams.

“But his record will last for a long time. We’ve got no-one anywhere near it at the moment, so I would suggest we have a long wait. And before then he could put the record into the sixties, if not out of sight.”

“And obviously I wish I had not been a smart-a*** and tried to chip that penalty against Brazil (in 1992, when Lineker scuffed his attempted ‘Panenka’ from the spot and missed a chance to equal Charlton’s tally).

“But I had an absolutely wonderful England career and I am very lucky – I didn’t win my first cap until I was nearly 25.”

Lineker has just completed work on a 60-minute documentary for one of his other TV paymasters – Rooney: The Man Behind The Goals – due to be aired next month.

He claims it will provide “revelatory” insight into the family man who has become his country’s greatest goal-scorer and isn’t finished yet.

Long to Wayne over us, indeed.

* BT Sport is the new home of European football, with all UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches exclusively live. Visit btsport.com/europe for details.